Sony Internet TV Review (NSZ-GS7 Set Top Box)

We review Sony's new iteration of Google TV: the NSZ-GS7 Set Top Box in the Sony Internet TV family of products. It comes with a completely redesigned remote control and launches July 22nd for $199.

---

Closed Caption:

hey this is rob jackson phandroid.com
and this is our review of the brand new
sony internet TV with google TV
the nsz gs-7 which is sony second
generation of Google TV devices you can
see my own personal setup I've got the
old sony internet TV blu-ray box and it
differs in a few key ways from the
product we've got here
this is just a set-top box so it doesn't
come with anything but google TV
functionality
most people already have a blu-ray
player and they have everything they
need so this is a more affordable
alternative to get that google TV
experience the most noticeable
difference in the new sony google TV is
the remote
now here we've got the new remote you
can see it looks much more like a
traditional television remote the old
version over here is looks like a gaming
hybrid remote control with a qwerty
keyboard on the front so they chose to
go the more traditional route and they
improved it with a large track pad area
you can see the old track pad was an
optical trackpad and top right and was
just weird didn't respond well and was
tough to use so they greatly improved
the trackpad experience the track pad on
the new one is actually clickable so if
you press it in you can make selections
which is nice
so another feature is the court a
keyboard which is on the back
you've got a full qwerty keyboard and so
you can flip between using the trackpad
using the keyboard its will talk about
the keyboard and a little bit and the
actual set top box comes in an
attractively small frame
it's eight inches wide it's five inches
deep and it's 1.4 inches high
so when you compare that to a phone like
the Galaxy Nexus you can see it's pretty
darn slim and this thing is about 1.3
pounds so a nice slim frame to fit into
your media center
taking a look around the box on the very
front we have the connection indicator
light so you can tell if the box is on
or off on the bottom and the sides
you've got these grades for the fan and
all the action happens on the back all
the connectivity so on the left-hand
side we can see there's the hdmi in
in the hdmi out next to that the digital
optical out then you've got the IR
blaster for use with the remote
if you want a hardwired internet you've
got the land to USB slots and then of
course your power source
the box is powered by a 1.2 gigahertz
dual-core processor with 8 gigabytes of
onboard flash memory remember you also
have those two USB ports for external
memory or for connecting your laptop or
whatever you like and we should also
mention that those two hdmi slots are 3d
compatible so if you've got a 3d TV
you're in luck if you can't hardwired
your internet connection
you're not this device does have Wi-Fi
which is a great feature it's also got
bluetooth and that's how your remote
control works hopefully in the future
we'll see some accessories work with
that as well
installing the google TV really couldn't
be easier unless you paid someone to do
it for you
here I've got my TV set up with my
gerbil the garbled the wires on wires
and the cable boxes there on the top so
we're going to connect the sony tv to
that by taking the signal out of the TV
putting it into the sony internet TV
with hdmi and then plugging that into
the TV so the cable signal will pass
through the google TV into our actual TV
now your cable TV box will need hdmi out
and talk to them about that
here we've got the hdmi running out of
the cable box here's the other end we're
putting it into the HDMI in of the
google TV box
pretty straightforward and then we're
taking the signal out so then hdmi out
of the google TV box and our other end
is actually already plugged into the
google TV you can see from before
now of course we need a power source so
we're going to plug this end into the
ACN and i'm pretty sure you guys can
figure out where this goes
don't forget your IR blaster we should
let your remote talk to the gtv which
will talk to other devices like blu-ray
players or gaming consoles and things of
that nature
the worst mistake you can make is
forgetting the batteries in the remote
control
so look at this little button you just
press it down and it's a faceplate that
pops off and reveals to battery areas on
the left and right so make sure you get
your plus and your - headed the right
way and then snap the face plate back on
and you're in business ready to rock
with sony internet TV
see there we go green light means it's
working
let's test it up so the pair your remote
with the TV make sure you're on the
actual remote side not the keyboard side
and hold down the function key and enter
key at the same exact time and then just
wait until it says success and there we
go
parent succeeded now we get to go
through and lovely startup process
selecting our language we get a little
tutorial this is how you use the
touchpad this is how you scroll this is
how you select a language
this is how you want to set up your
screen this part's actually kind of
important
you want to make sure that the viewing
areas maximize so be very careful and do
it to the exact pixel don't go 1 pixel /
don't go 1 pixel less because it will
compromise your experience and you
connect the internet pretty obvious
Wi-Fi and put in your past we're
connected then you attach your google
account which is a nice feature it's
dark so I just held down the function
key with the with the magnifying glass
and that turns on your light the
backlight of the keyboard which is nice
so i was using that while i was setting
up the TV and then you say what kind of
TV you have i have a samsung I didn't
know the model number but it didn't seem
to matter
I just hit next
and tested the volume and the volume
work perfectly
there you go so my TV from a hardware
standpoint is connected now its tongue
what you can do if you have other
peripherals and multimedia equipment you
can set it up there as well
now what zoom is you through you know
tutorial this is how the TV works
speaking of how the TV works this is
running Android 3.2 which is the version
of google TV that pretty much every
single google TV product is running
right now so it's identical
nothing's really changed you can see on
the left - there's notifications they've
got all apps live TV TV and movies I've
got netflix here install there's YouTube
Google Play Store to download apps
google chrome and then sony store and
search so there is the full menu that
you normally see you go into all apps
and this is pretty much like your app
tray on your phone or your tablet so
that's pretty much the same
live TV lets you jump to live TV
obviously then you've got TV and movies
which is google's own service for kind
of showing you what you can watch what
school and allows you to rent movies
from different places and see live TV
shows and right things but let's take a
step back for a minute because what we
see with this google TV on the new sony
internet TV box is pretty much from a
software standpoint what we already see
all the Google TV's out there
it's Android 3.2 you get what you see is
that good or bad
well it does some things really well for
example i'm watching TV
my friends are talking about the new
google TV box so i want to tell them
what's going on and put the teacher i'm
watching in picture in picture
I search for phandroid google TV review
I bring up the results while we're still
watching our TV show
I get to c integrated you know YouTube
videos web searches suggestions things
that might be on TV that phandroid and I
can just watch in Baltimore
this game you know they start talking
about Matt Wieters he's that bad check
out these stats and then an argument
breaks out between my friends
he's great now he sucks all he is the
best person on the planet and then all
right let's settle it
let's just look let's search so we
searched google TV and it gives us TV
results
web results youtube results other apps
can tie into there so you can see if
there's a baseball app that you have
downloaded on your TV could search that
and you can go ahead and second you see
we can watch the game while we're
searching and it's really cool to be
able to have the integration with web
and TV all on that one big screen in one
integrated experience however beyond
that core experience
Google TV's pretty annoying to use it's
glitchy it's laggy
it doesn't always work how you wanted to
and that's no fault of sony actually
this is the best google TV box that you
can buy at the moment and Google to
needs to update the system and make it
better and needs to push the apps more
and push better app development because
the apps are kind of a mess - besides
some great apps out there like Netflix
like redux there's some really cool ones
but they're limited so you know Google
needs to do a better job and once google
releases a new version of this operating
system which fingers crossed will be
awesome and app developers developers
start developing awesome apps and games
for the platform this sony to internet
box will get the operating system update
and the experience itself will be loads
better so go ahead and you know google
it
search for for reviews of the new google
TV with Android 3.2 and you can read all
about it because it's not anything new
from this product standpoint what is new
let's talk about that the remote so
brand new redesign remote as we talked
about before
let's go through it a little bit on the
right hand side of it is actually the
volume rocker the channel changer and a
mute button you can see i can press the
up and down buttons
in the background the TV changes
channels kind of interesting to have it
on the side there is in its own secluded
type of position but compete most people
use their thumb or their finger to
change channels so then on the front
you've got the power buttons for the TV
the change of input the whole system you
can access the TV Guide access DVR and
live TV
we've got your d-pad the up and down and
left and right make selections
picture-in-picture back button home key
and Men UK there are just like androids
and other places and they work very
similarly then we've got fast forward
some cases you have to hold the fast
forward button down and this whole
thing's clicking so the fast forward
button is clicked as well and you can
see right there
how click it actually is it's a nice
feel to it
I'm going to get the function key there
you've got play pause and info and the
bottom row of keys that function key if
you have that going you can do a
drag-and-drop for the trackpad as well
so on the back there you saw a keyboard
here we go you can see it's got a
dedicated number 0 up by the escape
button numbers 1290 that live TV button
going across the right and that star
which allows you to favorite programs
and channels and stuff like that which
is nice
press the function key and that
magnifying glass and you get the
backlight which we showed you earlier
and you've just pretty much , qwerty
keyboard use the function key with these
other buttons you can see the orange
fast forward and Paul's and all that
stuff and at the top there's the info
wide 3d and you can access those buttons
their alternate controls for use with
the function so pretty commonplace
are there is the d-pad in the bottom
right as well
and pretty typical actually for a qwerty
keyboard
you know type pretty quickly which is
nice for searching the web or typing the
names of programs
the part that i found a little bit
annoying is how you may use this in the
general workflow you know you're
changing your channels you want to go to
the guide because you can't find what
you want and you want to go up and down
and then you're like you know what I'm
just going to watch this so you want to
search the name for it and then you're
doing a lot of work and for a control
that you know it looks very traditional
for one-handed use your doing a lot of
maneuvering of the remote
so there are a lot of elements you've
got to jump around between there's that
in dedicated pause and play and fast
forward there but on the other side
you've got to use the function button
for it so if i want to fast forward or
play
I may go back to the front and then I
want to use the mouse then i'm going to
go
you know over back to this side and then
I want to drag and drop something or
scroll
so it depends how you use your TV if
you're going to like this remote or not
I kind of tend to prefer the previous
version of the sony google TV remote but
that's probably partially cuz i got so
used to it so I don't know it's a tough
call here I like some of the elements
they've got the full qwerty keyboards
nice
the the track pads definitely nice but
I'm not convinced that it flows together
when you're actually using the keyboard
and the remote control in a real-life
setting depending on the way you watch
TV
so that's something you probably need to
determine so what is the conclusion on
this new google TV by Sony all first of
all props to sony for sticking with
google TV
it's still got a long way to go and
they're working their butts off with all
these different devices from TVs to
blu-ray players to set top boxes and
they're working with what they've got
their reworking and redesigning the
controller so they're doing a lot of
stuff and I hope that we see a google
nexus TV and I hope that Sony makes it
and as far as hardware goes
I'm the box is great i think it's going
to be affordable and it will be great
for people who just want the google TV
experience added to what they've got now
although be warned it's nothing that's
going to blow you away
an update could change all that and if
you're an early adopter
this is might be something you really
want to check out the new remote
it has some improvements and it has some
oddities about it so it's kind of a wash
it's interesting at least now you've got
a couple different options for remote
though
so all in all the sony internet play
with google TV
the brand new one the NSC gs-7 with
Android 3.2 I'm looking pretty good
a strong product nothing again that's
going to blow you away but we're waiting
on google to fill their end of the
bargain with this whole google TV thing
so stay tuned we'll let you know as
Google TV news comes and hope for the
best
this is rob jackson phandroid.com take
care